A man stands on a pier with Alcatraz Island at rear in San Francisco, Saturday, Dec. 22, 2018. Despite being a model for Alcatraz, McNeil Island's prison hasn't garnered as much publicity in pop culture.

Films centered on Alcatraz span decades, from “Birdman of Alcatraz” in 1962 to “The Rock” in 1996.

Still, the depth of McNeil Island’s history all but guaranteed it would permeate the world of entertainment somehow. Most prominently, it’s the location of the first scenes of the 1989 action comedy, “Three Fugitives,” starring Nick Nolte and Martin Short. Nolte portrays a man named Lucas, a reformed bank robber who is taken hostage by Ned Perry, Short’s character, after he holds up a bank in desperation.

Bolf said the movie star donated them to show appreciation for the prison’s cooperation during filming there.

While the actual inmates weren’t in the movie, Bolf says it was exciting nonetheless. “We got to meet him,” he said of Nolte. “He did come into our chow hall and talk to us for a little bit.”

McNeil also makes a quick cameo, so to speak, in a more serious film from 1995. “Heat,” starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, tells the story of a group of professional bank robbers who start to feel the heat from police when they unknowingly leave a clue at their latest heist. Lt. Vincent Hanna, played by Pacino, namedrops the Puget Sound’s island prison in an exchange with De Niro’s character, Neil McCauley: “Seven years in Folsom — in the hole for three. McNeil before that. McNeil as tough as they say?”

Simone Alicea, co-host of Forgotten Prison, says the origin of that reference is unclear to her.

“McNeil has always had a reputation for being a better place to do your time, one of the more relaxed institutions,” Alicea said. “Also he mentions Folsom in the same breath, which I think had a much rougher reputation.”

Still, it seems the crew did some homework, says Dave Beals, a historian with the Washington State Archives who helped curate the museum’s McNeil Island exhibit.

These select few examples in entertainment were the only McNeil references uncovered in roughly a year of extensive research, in partnership with the Tacoma-based museum. So, why is Alcatraz, a younger prison modeled after McNeil, more prevalent?

Wissel acknowledges she can only speculate, but the contrast may have to do with the publicity that’s swirled around Alcatraz since it opened in the 1930s. It was billed as the inescapable prison for “the worst of the worst.” Meanwhile, McNeil — which opened in 1875 — was already old news.

“McNeil was always a medium and minimum security prison, not the kind of place that inspire the pop-culture imagination,” Wissel said. “Add to that the fact that it’s on an island in South Puget Sound, far less visible than a prison island of San Francisco Bay.”

And with its cold closure in 2011, it’s likely Washington’s forgotten prison will continue to fly under the radar, despite its rich history.

“It’s like McNeil found its way into every chapter of U.S. prison history, but was always in the shadow of something else,” Beals said.